German Lutherans began settling in Baltimore
Town shortly after it was laid out in 1730.

Some of the first
Germans in Baltimore had come straight from the Old Country, others from the
German settlements of Pennsylvania, especially from nearby York County.
For the most part they were pious people.

As with all the other settlements of
Germans in colonial days, devotional life was, at first, centered in the
homes. Many had brought their Bibles and hymn-books with them from
Germany. Several of these original well-thumbed volumes remain in the
library of Zion Church.

Their devotional books were read in the family circles
of the first Lutherans, and as had always been the custom in German
families, the father would lead the prayers. Soon several families
began to gather together for devotions, and their meetings became
regular. The humble dwellings of the townsfolk were the first
places of worship.

Legally, the position of the Lutherans and Reformed
in Baltimore was difficult. Maryland was a colony of the British crown
and the Church of England alone was established by law and supported
from the public treasury. There was no restriction on founding any
other religious body in the Maryland colony, but the tax for the support
of the Anglican Church had to be paid regardless. These laws
eventually faded into non-enforcement, but created difficulties between
groups of early Christians in the area.

The Lutherans in Baltimore
thus belonged legally to the Anglican St. Paul's parish. In about
1750, they briefly held their worship in St. Paul's Church together with
their Reformed brethren. The arrangement didn't last long.

The
Baltimore Germans had almost no access to their Mother Church.
Their need for ministry lead to their being abused by "itinerant
preachers of bad reputation and conduct" on several occasions.
Reportedly, several de-frocked ministers from Europe and vagabonds
pretending to be clergy misrepresented themselves to the German
Lutherans, taking advantage of their good nature and generosity before
abandoning them. The Baltimore Germans needed a minister they
could trust.

There were many Lutheran congregations in the country
pleading for the services of a pastor. Only a few groups in
Pennsylvania had consolidated to carry on a regular existence as
Lutheran Churches. Untiring ministers were constantly roaming four
or five counties in order to keep the congregations together until
ministers should come from the Mother Church in Germany to take over
these charges.

The faithful Lutherans of Baltimore could not offer
much to their first pastor, the Reverend John George Barger, who
for three consecutive years came down from Pennsylvania six times a
year, administering the spiritual functions in preaching and sacraments,
for five pounds a year.

Up until the time of the first
congregation, the Lutherans and Reformers had banded together. In
1755 all those among the Germans whose faith was founded on the
"Augsburg Confession" formed the "Evangelical Lutheran
Congregation at Baltimore Town".